The Beta Lyrae system was an inhabited planetary system in the Alpha Quadrant. Beta Lyrae was known as one of the rare, beautiful spectacles of the Milky Way Galaxy and almost every starship that passed by stopped to see it.
Components of the Beta Lyrae system[]
Beta Lyrae was an octonary star system.
The first component was a trinary star system. The first component was a binary star system which had formed together from the joining of the blue supergiant Sheliak (the proper name for Beta Lyrae Aa1) with the blue giant Beta Lyrae Aa2. The secondary component was a single star system with the blue dwarf star Beta Lyrae Ab.
The remaining five components were single star systems. The primaries of these systems were the blue dwarf stars Beta Lyrae B and Beta Lyrae C, the yellow stars Beta Lyrae E and Beta Lyrae F, and the orange star Beta Lyrae D.
The Beta Lyrae system had at least two planets.
History[]
In 2269, the shuttlecraft Copernicus of the USS Enterprise was transporting a Slaver stasis box to Starbase 25 and passed by Beta Lyrae. Kzinti privateers lured the shuttle to an ice-bound planet in the system, using another stasis box as bait. (TAS: "The Slaver Weapon")
See also[]
Stellar cartography[]
Position of Beta Lyrae in the galaxy
The Beta Lyrae system was located in the constellation Lyra. The system was approximately 960 light years (290 parsec)s from Sol. The system was located 142° northeast of the galactic plane between Kzin and the Federation Starbase 25.
In 2293, the location of Beta Lyrae in the Milky Way Galaxy was labeled in a star chart that was in Captain James T. Kirk's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise-A. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, okudagram)
In 2365, the location of the Beta Lyrae system was labeled in a Subspace Comm Net Ops star chart, which was seen in the courtroom on Starbase 173. There was a subspace line between this system and Capella. (TNG: "The Measure Of A Man")
Appendix[]
Background information[]
Information on this system was derived from the episodes and real-world sources. The real-world information added to the article was current as of 2025.
In August 2024, an annotated computer paste-up of this star chart was put up for auction in the Entertainment Memorabiliia Live Auction: Los Angeles Summer 2024 by Propstore Auction. [1]
The Star Trek: Star Charts (United Federation of Planets II) described the Beta Lyrae (Sheliak) system as consisting of a pair of B-class stars. StarTrek.com described the system as containing "a panoply of giant red and yellow stars, a blue dwarf star, and blue gas clouds." [2](X) The system actually consisted of 5 B-class stars, 1 K-class star, and 2 G-class stars. The binary star system within the trinary star system was obscured by an accretion disk.
External links[]
- Beta Lyrae at Wikipedia
- Supergiant at Wikipedia
- Giant star at Wikipedia
- Beta Lyrae at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works